Michigan 75, Ohio State 69
We're probably just going to call it the Devante' Jones Game. With the deck stacked against them, and their star center missing the game, the Wolverines played through Jones, off Jones and like Jones, winning on opportunistic turnovers, drives into the lane through contact, and clever assists. Together Jones and his teammates delivered a tournament-worthy performance, helped ruin EJ Liddell's senior night, and probably punched Michigan's ticket back to the Dance.
Going in, it looked like it was going to be the Nobody Has Bigs Game. Ohio State went through the week with a couple of forwards questionable to play, but when the lineups were announced it was Michigan's crucial big man missing, as Hunter Dickinson was not available due to a stomach ailment. OSU's Kyle Young was also out with an illness, and Zed Key, a game-time decision with an ankle injury, got the start but re-rolled it in the 1st half and hopped off the court. Michigan rolled with Brandon Johns and Moussa Diabate in the frontcourt, until Diabate had to sit for 9 minutes after picking up a third foul nearly as tickytack as his first two. OSU went with Joey Brunk and had senior star EJ Liddell reprise his sophomore center role when they went small.
That led to some weird lineups featuring lots of Johns, Terrance Williams II, and Jaron Faulds, all of which Michigan survived thanks to the steady play of Jones, to whom fell Dickinson's usual role of generating most of the offense. The senior point guard responded with 21 points (on 16 shots) and 9 assists, and created more turnovers (four) than he gave up (two).
It also led to some weird frontcourt matchups. Key was replaced by Joey Brunk, whose game usually matches his name. While the lug couldn't get to the rim, his jump hook was consistently finding its way back into the net off the other side of the rim. Late in the first frame OSU rode an 8-0 run to a 9-point lead as Terrance Williams lost Brunk on a cut for a slam. Williams got those two back on jumper at the buzzer but the Buckeyes took a 7-point lead into halftime.
Two quick fouls out of halftime put Moussa on the bench and had Michigan fans thinking this was going to turn into the No Bigs Game after all. But Caleb Houstan and Eli Brooks went to work on defense to deny rising star Malaki Branham opportunities, forcing the ball to lesser ballhandlers they could pick. Brooks and Jones canned their threes, and Jones began to get comfortable breaking down OSU's defense in the paint.
And for his part, Faulds played brilliantly, contributing to one of the turnover-runout sequences, and drawing plenty of attention on the block to open up his teammates. At one point Michigan even sent the ball back into the post for him, which led to a second kickout to a wide open attempt from Houstan.
Unfortunately it was also one of those Houstan Can't Hit Anything games--he was 0/3 from three and 0/10 overall--but he played well enough on defense, and generated enough putbacks on his misses, that Michigan only kinda-sorta missed his offense. It helped that Williams was covering for him, scoring 17 and hitting 3/4 from the arc.
The Devante Jones and No Bigs and Caleb is Off and Remember When They Reposted with Faulds? Game is going to overshadow an excellent performance from Moussa Diabate, who held EJ Liddell to just 4/10 from the floor, and contributed 4 offensive rebounds on the other end. The freshman Frenchman's impact was never more evident than when Diabate blocked a point blank shot by Joey Brunk to preserve a 64-59 lead with 2-1/2 minutes remaining. On the subsequent drive Jones drove through contact by Liddell for a layup then went hard to the floor. The officials let that one go, like they did every other Liddell foul in this game, and Ohio State promptly ran the floor and drained a Justin Ahrens three. Jones writhed on the baseline for another minute, but returned at the next stoppage to help Michigan finish the job.
If anything else could define that job, it was the extra possessions. Out of Ohio State's 13 turnovers, at least 11 of them were created by Wolverine help defenders picking their pockets. OSU was shooting well over 50% from the field most of the game, and in the 2nd half started picking up whistles even before players made contact. Michigan took care of the ball, turning it over just six times and rebounded 13 of their 30 misses versus seven Buckeye OREBs. Winning the turnover/offensive rebounding battle generated 13 extra tries for the visitors, and the final margin.
What the Devante' Jones No Hunter They Reposted With Faulds Diabate Exacts Vengeance on Liddell Extra Possessions Game could have been remembered for was probably the most lopsidedly officiated game of the college basketball season. Bo Boroski's crew swallowed their whistles for the first 15 minutes except to award Liddell an and-one after he shoved Johns then ran over a set Williams, then a ticky-tack call on Zed Key on the other end. Diabate picked up a cheap one near the end of the half then sat with two more questionable calls, including one where Key just plowed him over while fighting for position.
As Michigan began to pull away late, almost Buckeye drive, and for a five-minute stretch literally every attempt by Liddell, was bailed out with a bad whistle. Ohio State hit the double-bonus right after the under 8 timeout, but had to foul Michigan three times in the final minute to send the visitors to the line. Ironically, the heavy disparity in fouls gave the visitors a chance to whittle the clock under 30 seconds before they had to shoot rather than dribble.
It might have been fitting, thematically, had the 2021-'22 run ended with a No Hunter, Houstan Can't Hit the Broad Side of a Barn Refs Game. Instead, the selection committee is going to see Michigan finished its regular season with a win when everything was going against them. They'll face Indiana(?) in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday, and could improve their seeding depending on how far they go from there. But you have to think, with this win, they're in.
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We are pretty locked into Indiana not Maryland. Also, looks like wisco loss costed us potential rematch with them with potentially hampered Johnny davis. Pretty salty about that.
It's all going to come down to the Illinois-Iowa game. If Iowa wins that game, we get IU and a chance to take on Wisky in the Quarters!
and IU is up 40-28 with 3:28 to go in the first half
Such an awesome and improbable win! No Dickinson, no Houstan field goals, Diabate sitting out with foul trouble and the refs caught up in the home team fervor ….
Go Blue!!
What a game for Devante Jones. The guy played a near-perfect game. In fact, the entire Michigan backcourt played extremely well. After a rather disappointing first half, Brooks turned it up in the second. Frankie turned in some excellent minutes in the first half too. In fact, the two or three drives to the basket that Frankie had in the first half really exposed how weak OSU's interior defense was and outlined the blueprint for Jones to exploit it to maximum effect in the second half.
Terrance Williams should be a permanent 15-20 mpg fixture in the rotation at the 3 and 4. The guy just turns in outstanding effort and hustle on defense, can knock down 3s (36% on the year with decent volume), and can finish around the rim and through contact.
For as underwhelming as Johns has been this season, he actually played a solid game today. He did his job on defense and rebounded the ball pretty well. The 0-5 from the floor and 0-2 from 3 is just par for the course for him unfortunately.
Houstan's defense deserves serious praise. Despite his horrid shooting performance, and it was probably his worst offensive game of the year, he stayed engaged and connected to his teammates, and turned in one of his best defensive games of the season. He checked Ahrens well and even played straight up on Branham on a few possessions. Had himself a few steals and even a block on Lidell. Plenty of players give insufficient effort on defense when they have off days on the offensive end.
Williams loses focus and is at times a liability on defense (although probably not moreso than Houstan), but man, his offense has been on fire lately.
I agree. He does have a tendency to allow his mark to cut open whenever he is defending away from the ball. But, that usually only happens once a game. Other than that, Williams is a pesky on ball defender who also tags on PnR pretty well.
Once a game when you only play 5-10 minutes is way too much for those kinds of mistakes that give baskets away.
Nitpicking, it was 64-59 (not 64-57) when Moussa blocked the dunk. A huge, huge play. OSU thought they were going to cut it to one possession.
First off hats to the team as this will honestly go down as one of the grittier wins of any UM team in any sport. Just tremendous heart shown, overcoming 0-15 between Johns and Houstan to boot. Secondly as others have mentioned something has got to be done about college officiating more specifically the Big Ten. Some of these guys do not belong reffing D1 basketball period, they need to be fired. The last 10 min in particular was a one sided disgrace where one team could make as much contact as they wanted with no call and the other was getting called for everything under the sun. Ahrens got 2 three pointers off transition on a non foul call and the second on a non call on Jones and then not fucking blowing the play dead for an injured player which is doubly inexcusable. And the not blowing the play dead thing for an injured player has happened now multiple times this year across the Big Ten.
Michigan dominated the game in the second half and deserved to win and it's not right that the officials almost changed that. Not to mention the first meeting against OSU had the same issue as far as them not getting called for anything at the basket. I don't think there is any bias or conspiracy against UM though in the larger picture, it is simply a matter of the officiating in the conference being an unacceptable joke overall. It severely hampers the enjoyment of actually watching any Big Ten game, it's consistently awful.
The foul disparity was definitely bad, but I just can't understand how they didn't stop the play when Jones went down hard - it was on a change of possession after a made bucket! There was no reason to let the game continue with a player on the floor.
It's happened multiple times this year now in the Big Ten to different teams. It is a black and white thing, the play is supposed to be blown dead for any potential injury. It's truly inexcusable.
When I officiate at the high school level, I blow it dead immediately unless the other team is fast breaking for a lay up. That was not the case with OSU.
The refs did a very poor job at every level today. I would get phone calls from the MHSAA and my local association if I had a performance like those guys did today.
Man o man. Does seem like refs aren’t giving Michigan any thing…either way.
Moussa seems to be a target for them.
whatever. We win. Those bums lose on senior night. Lol.
ha
Since OSU extended football’s gold pants tradition to basketball last season (where they’ll earn gold jerseys for sweeping Michigan), OSU hasn’t won the award in either sport.
Jones is really rounding into form. And tournament games are won with experienced, savvy guard play. Assuming a healthy Dickinson in the post, Jones and Brooks could do some real damage in the tournament. Sweet sixteen is not outside the realm of possibility.
With MSU's win over Maryland, we are officially the #8 seed and playing Indiana in the first game on Thursday. Tip off at 11:30am EST.
Now we root for Iowa to beat Illinois so we can get a potential 2nd round rematch with Wisconsin.
Seth - I don't think we are safely in yet. Need to win Thursday to make it a done deal and get out of Dayton.
Dont look now, but Williams is shooting 40% from three. Never thought I would say that.
The coaches should not allow Houstan to practice in Crisler all week. He needs to be shooting on random hoops all over Ann Arbor so he gets rid of this home/away streak. CCRB, IM, Pioneer, driveways.,..doesn't matter. Learn to hit shots with different backgrounds and rims and backboards. He might be a star if his home shooting translated on the road.
AC, from my projections, I believe we are safely in. We have 5 Quad one wins, a SOS at #2, and when you compare our resume to other teams on the bubble it is not even close.
We are now playing for improving our seed. A worst case scenario would be one of the play in games. For that to happen there would need to be a ton of upsets in the small conference tournaments next week. I don't see us getting left out of the tournament this year.
Making it is now a done deal. You're right that we might need to win Thursday to get out of Dayton.
Agreed. I loathe a play in game but this is how I see it too. We need to squash Indiana's bubble hopes to stay out of Dayton.
Yep, this was The Jones Game.
Lots of contributors, but one guy got us this W. Man, he played a great game. So smart, so determined, so poised.
Giant win today - I think most of us were dreading a nervous Selection Sunday (at best). Now we can relax a bit and enjoy kicking some butt in the B1G tournament!
10-6 to close out the B1G after starting 1-3 (and a lackluster OOC) - impressive turn-around and growth from this team. They could easily have folded the tent, but fought their way into the tournament.
Welcome back, coach Howard - your men did a fine job in your absence.
Go Blue!
Michigan was very fortunate to win with how fouls were being called. Liddell was able to create contact on defense without a whistle yet when he was contacted (or not contacted) a foul was always called.
Yes. The foul that was called a block against Terrence Williams against Liddell was pretty bad. T Will's feet were set in great position outside the circle and he absorbed all the contact. Foul and one. Bullcrap.
And the term Bailout is the right term for what the refs were giving OSU in the 2nd half. They would be out of control on the drive, initiate contact and get bailed out on a bullshit call. I just don’t get how nothing can be done with the absolute incompetence
And toss in the terrible announcing: "Yep, that's a foul. He wasn't set. Good call." Which was also the most in-depth analysis of a play we got all afternoon.
Plus, very few good replays. Diabate got an offensive foul for doing...something...I don't know what. They didn't show anything.
Of course, we did get a nice replay of a non-call of the hammering on Johns, but then had to listen to: "I like it. It's the Big Ten, let 'em play!" Which was 100% wrong and is incredibly stupid because 1) it gets players hurt because it gets out of hand and 2) screws the teams in the Tournament because they have no idea how to play real defense.
Incessant cheering of plays with no explanation of what was good about it, blabbering through the whole thing...it was terrible. Made it harder to enjoy watching the game.
Until the end where UM won, heh heh heh!
If we beat Indiana I think we’re in and we are not First Four. If we lose against Indiana we’re probably hoping for First Four depending on Bid Stealers and that could get dicey. Bottom line is this game was massive but yeah still work to do if we want to feel safe and not really sweat out Selection Sunday.
The two most amazing victories of the weekend in my book are UNC winning at Duke in what supposed to be Coach K's home sendoff, and Michigan winning at OSU without Hunter.
11 out of 11 free throws. Big difference at the end of the game.
With all that money the league has, you would think they would invest more in decent officials. I wonder if it is as bad in hockey, baseball etc. as in football and basketball?
Big Ten hockey officials tend to be a joke on par with how CCHA officials tended to be a joke
What a win. Listened to the entire game on the radio broadcast, driving from Lake Huron to Chicago. Brian Boesch and Terry Mills don’t get enough credit for how good they are. Brian’s play-by-play is some of my favorite.
Huge game for T-Will!! Loved seeing that from him. And Kobe with the clutch three! This team’s had to overcome a lot, and it’s very rewarding to see them succeed.
Edit: I only learned this just earlier this year, but every live radio broadcast for games are available on mgoblue.com (so I can just listen on mobile). Maybe I’ve been living under a rock not knowing that, but it’s been huge for me and the people gotta know.
I don’t think Michigan is in with just the this win. It’s possible but far from certain and a loss to Indiana almost certainly results in a play in game
Moussa is America’s new favorite fighting Frenchman!
Fighting Frenchman sounds like an oxymoron to me.
Didn't get the Hamilton reference I guess?
Right over my head.
Yo, turns out we have a secret weapon
An immigrant, you know and love, who's unafraid to step in
He's constantly confusin', confoundin' the British henchmen
Ev'ryone give it up for America's favorite fighting Frenchman.
Dickinson had the flu AND it was cold outside the arena...wait. Nevermind.
I don't think I've seen so many steals since the Beilein era.
It's pretty amazing how much of a turnover advantage we enjoyed under Beilein.
I just went back and looked and in nine of his last ten seasons (which is all but his first two), Michigan was top 15 in not turning it over. And they were fairly middle of the pack at creating turnovers, which was a lot better than what's happened under Howard where they've been amongst the worst in CBB.
Which amounted to regularly taking 3-5 more shots than the opponent. This season it's the other way around.
Man is that a gorgeous first line.
As for the refs --pay 'em, them hold them accountable. Review boards. Somethin'
But for now, better things to concentrate on--
Yes, in.
Imagine I told you Houstan would go 0-10 and Dickinson was a scratch.
0-15 from the floor in 56 combined minutes for two starters and still got the W.
Why does Gus Johnson keep referring to them as "The World Famous Ohio State Buckeyes?"
He called them that several times during the football game back in November. You don't have to service them sexually while you call the game. Just call them OSU.
just call them....ohio, worst state ever.
TWill should start at the 3 instead of Houstan, and frankly this should not even be a hard decision for our coaching staff. WTF.
Wasn't mentioned in the recap, but I thought Bufkin's 3 was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shot of the game. Recall reading he's worked on his shot's release form by watching Eli. The ball looks good coming off his hand, he's been a nice spark off the bench the latter quarter of the season. I think this team is a consistent ~15ppg bench performance away from being a really tough out in the tournament.
I was texting my buddies during the game and initially called it the T-Will game, then it changed to the Diabate game, and finally the Devante Jones game
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